Zedlee wrote:I dont' like giving raises and 4 year deals to players whose best years are behind them.

Did they get a raise?

They signed $12.2M combined against a cap of $56.8M or 21.4% of the teams cap.

Next year they are $14M combined against a cap of $71.1M or 19.6% of the teams cap.

Quite honestly I am not a fan of the Sedins in this new NHL. I was leary of them before the lockout of 2004, and warmed up to them slowly as they developed into the players they were at the end of 2011-12. During the shortened 2012-13 season I began to wonder if they were worth re-signing as it seemed that opposing teams had figured them out and they were becoming less effective. They have done nothing to change that opinion this season.

However, the numbers you posted there Island are eye opening and I had not thought to look at their contracts as percentages of total team cap. When one considers that they are now earning a lesser percentage of our overall cap, and that the salary cap will likely go up yet again for 2015-16, their contracts don't look all that bad. Essentially Gillis just gained 1.8% (possibly more down the road) in cap room by re-signing a pair of top 6 forwards to 4 year terms. Looking at things in that light, I don't care if they start scoring at 60 point pace if Gillis can find a couple of players to skate with Kesler on a top line.

The way Kassian is starting to develop, particularly his playmaking ability, coupled with the chemistry he appears to be developing with Kesler, I think that finding a winger in the mold of Evander Kane would more than offset the "decline" of the Sedins.

So pipe dream away.....say we get Kane.

Kane-Kesler-Kassian $12.25M (being generous and giving Kassian $2M on like a 3 year deal)Sedin-Sedin-Burrows $16.5M (face it folks, nobody gels with the Sedins like Bur, they have missed him)

That's could be a pretty deadly top 6.....and it would cost us $28.75M 40% of our cap.

Figure another $18M for our top 4 defensemen, there's another 25% of our cap. (Obviously one of our current top 5 gets moved and I'm saying Edler goes and Tanev stays at around $3.5+M).

Well even if Luongo hangs around for another couple of years, between him and Eddie there goes 9% more. So now down to 26% of our total cap to fill out the roster.

So roughly $17M left to fill out 8 player spots. That's actually pretty easily done if we are going the route that Gillis has preached and start injecting youth into the lineup because we can probably allocate $6M to the 4th line, and that would buy a pretty stellar 4th line, another $5M to the bottom pairing, and then use youngsters on entry level deals to round out 3 other spots plus parts.

Factor in an growing cap ceiling and things don't look all that bad at all.

Meds wrote:Factor in an growing cap ceiling and things don't look all that bad at all.

Well we have to understand that we are still projected to be one of the highest-spending teams next year.

Next season (with Booth, remember) we sit 3rd in the league (behind Chicago and Boston) with $10.1M in cap space and a 17 man roster. Removing Booth gives us $14.35M and 16 players signed. $14.3M in cap space still puts us at 7th highest payroll in the league.

We need to be cognizant, especially when discussing Free Agents, that there will be 20 teams in the league with $20M or more in cap space next season. 5 teams have more than $30M in cap space.

So yeah, the Canucks having some wiggle room is great, but chances are a team like Buffalo ($42M in cap space next season) can offer any UFA more money than we can. It's certainly plausible that second-line/top-6 wingers go for $5M+ this summer.

Meds wrote:Factor in an growing cap ceiling and things don't look all that bad at all.

Well we have to understand that we are still projected to be one of the highest-spending teams next year.

Next season (with Booth, remember) we sit 3rd in the league (behind Chicago and Boston) with $10.1M in cap space and a 17 man roster. Removing Booth gives us $14.35M and 16 players signed. $14.3M in cap space still puts us at 7th highest payroll in the league.

We need to be cognizant, especially when discussing Free Agents, that there will be 20 teams in the league with $20M or more in cap space next season. 5 teams have more than $30M in cap space.

So yeah, the Canucks having some wiggle room is great, but chances are a team like Buffalo ($42M in cap space next season) can offer any UFA more money than we can. It's certainly plausible that second-line/top-6 wingers go for $5M+ this summer.

Most of my post was based on the hypothetical. And our cap space really isn't a concern to me when most of what I'm talking about for significant changes were done via trade.

I don't actually expect Gillis to make a big splash in the UFA market this year. If there is a splash to be made by MG it will be before, or at, the trade deadline. The summer will be fore filling in some support roles. Hopefully we won't be needing to chase after some $5M players during the off-season.

Todd Bersnoozi wrote:Mark Fistric signed a 3 year extension with the Ducks for relative cheap contract. The former Giant captain would of been a good guy to have around to give our backend more size and grit.

U think Willie would come back here? I guess he didn't leave in bad terms like Manny, he wanted to play here pretty bad the first time around and he shows up to the Canucks fishing derby in the offseason. As much as I liked Willie, not sure if getting another older player with a fairly high contract is exactly what we need.

BladesofSteel wrote:2013/14:Stanton at $550 > Fistric at $900

2014/15Stanton at $550 > Fistric at $1.26

Yeah, Stanton is a good pickup and great value right now, and with him in rounding out out top 6, we don't really have room for Fistric. Just thinking Fistric would bring more grit, size and nastiness to our backend cuz after Juice, our D is relatively soft. Stanton is probably a better all around player though; a potential Willie Mitchell type actually (Stanton's probably a better skater, maybe not as tuff, but pretty hard to beat defensively lke Willie).

John Tavares out for the rest of the NHL season with a torn left MCL and miniscus suffered in the last Olympic game. Tough blow for the Islandes and Tavares. I guess Duschene will get a chance to show he was a good choice.

dbr wrote:Good thing the pick they dealt for Vanek is top 10 protected..

Isn't the pick for 2014 or 2015 ? It's one of the other I believe Islanders choice.

I thought it was 2014, if the pick is in the top ten the Islanders have the option of deferring to 2015.

Effectively it's the same thing though, since they are not going to pass six non-NJD teams over 22 games without Tavares (and I'm guessing they dump Vanek and MacDonald now, if it wasn't already in the plans)..

Of course, if they keep the pick they'll be hard-pressed to improve enough over the offseason to avoid giving the Sabres another top 10 pick in a draft that is by most accounts, significantly better...